Hoopskirts

The New Year!  A time for fresh starts!  And, speaking of fresh starts, to my great delight I discovered that The Historical Food Fortnightly Challenge has been revived.  Having a prompt and a challenge not only keeps you on your toes but it makes cooking historic food even more pleasurable. The Challenge:  One Last Hurrah.  Pick a holiday, any holiday, and start the New Year with some in- or out-of-season merriment. I decided to attempt New Year's Cake.  New Year's Day was a day of festivity and social visits.  The normal pattern seemed to be that the women stayed home to receive callers and well-wishers throughout the day while the men circulated from house to house.  Each hostess would give her callers some type of refreshment.  In the middle Atlantic states, particularly those of Dutch origin, the traditional pastry was New Year's Cake, but not a cake such as we think of.  New Year's cakes of this type are actual...

On Nov 26, 1863, a Thanksgiving dinner was served at St. James Hall in London. The guests seem to have been diplomats, both Federal and British. The program was as follows: 1.Reading of President Lincoln's Proclamation of Thanksgiving 2. Prayer 3. Singing a song written to the melody of "Auld Lang Syne" We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires Unchanged, where'er we roam, While gather round their household fires The happy bands of home; And while across the far blue wave, Their prayers go up to God, We pledge the faith our fathers gave, -- The land by Freedman trod! The heroes of our Native Land Their sacred trust still hold, The freedom from a mighty band Wrenched by the men of old. That lesson to the broad earth given We pledge beyond the sea,...

This being November, I thought it would be appropriate to look at America's antebellum Thanksgiving. The stores around us today are rushing headlong into Christmas merchandising, and have been since before Halloween. How appropriate it feels to slow down and look at Thanksgiving in greater detail. An appropriate place to start would be some reasons for Thanksgiving. Many contemporary Americans seem to have lost touch with the concept of Thanksgiving as a day of giving thanks to God, filling the day instead with food and football. Food and football are both wonderful, but not as the primary motive for the day. In 1832, The Reverend William T. Harrison, minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, NJ, published a sermon he gave on the reasons American citizens should be thankful on Thanksgiving. I liked the perspective he gave on how Americans saw themselves and their country. 1. The land itself that belongs to the United States . At the time, America comprised 2...

We (my husband and I) ran a New Year's Ball in Milwaukee for the first time. Some observations, so perhaps I'll remember next year: The ball was a great deal of fun! We really enjoyed it! The group went through a great deal of time and effort to make the event special for everyone - and the food was great. People get more tired as the evening progresses, so the sets can actually be shorter. Our planned program of 20 dances was FAR too ambitious. At times 3 dances in a set would have been sufficient. 4 hours is an awfully long time for a ball (we didn't set the time) - and I got emotionally dragged out as it went on. I worried less and less about the dancers keeping exact time as it got later. I need to keep that in mind next year. Pacing is everything. Perhaps some more waltzes? I don't want to overload on waltzes, but they are slower.... People are so willing to put up with your little glitches if you are open with them and you can laugh....

The days after Thanksgiving are meant for Thanksgiving leftovers, so here're mine. Now that Thanksgiving is over and I can catch my breath (one child home from college and the other flew in with his wife), it's time to post the things I should have posted earlier (leftovers!). As children we learned about the Pilgrims. Civil War reenactors focus on the fact the Abraham Lincoln created Thanksgiving as a national holiday, as opposed to a recommendation that each state could accept or not. But what about Thanksgiving inbetween? On a recent trip to Indiana University, we saw a special exhibit at the Lilly Library, IU's antiquities library. On display was President Washington's proclamation for Thanksgiving 1789. Their copy is a printed document (as opposed to the original handwritten) and was purchased from a dealer named Mott in September 1984 for $3,800.00. By the PRESIDENT Of the UNITED STATES of America A Proclamation. Whereas it is the Duty of all Nations to ac...